Example sentences of "[pers pn] [verb] be at pain " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | So far I have been at pains to make a clear distinction between these two modes . |
| 2 | I have been at pains to emphasize the positive aspects of discipline . |
| 3 | You ca n't do , not when you 've been at pains to tell me what rubbish all this astrological mumbo-jumbo is . |
| 4 | I would have thought that you 'd be delighted to invite Calder back just to put your views across again , even though there is n't anything between you both , as you 've been at pains to tell me ! ’ |
| 5 | After that she had been at pains to assure him she could cope very well and was about to go to see her inheritance . |
| 6 | For heaven 's sake , she 'd been under a bit of strain of late , so what was more natural than that , having at last met the man she had been at pains to meet — actually being out walking with him , and on such a lovely sharp but sunny day — she should — er — relax a little ? |
| 7 | Unfortunately , as we have been at pains to argue , to do so would be only to impose our own interpretation of reality on the reader . |
| 8 | Knowing that some foreigners , and even some Germans , would worry about a possible reversion to past behaviour , it has been at pains to show itself to be a reformed character not just by these qualities of good citizenship but by its guilty conscience . |
| 9 | He could not afford to make mistakes ; all his life he had been at pains to learn and understand how ordinary people live and had delved into the seamier side of human nature , but he was still very unworldly . |
| 10 | She was his only daughter and the youngest of seven , and he had been at pains to give her a good education . |